A Birthday, New Phones and Salsa Day!

Friday was my sister, Ann's, birthday. It was her last day of teaching (preschool) for the year as well. Our tradition has been to take her out to dinner on her birthday, and once again, we are so glad we're in town so we could do this. She chose Red Lobster, which is just great with us. I can always find reasonably healthy choices there.

I spent part of the day baking a cake for the after-dinner card game at our place. It's an angel food cake with a lemon filling and topping:

We had a great evening playing cribbage, canasta, and spades. We play partners in canasta and cribbage. Ann & I play Jim & Bob. She & I won canasta, but the guys took the cribbage game this time. I think Jim won spades, which isn't his favorite game, but he always seems to do pretty good at it.

Yesterday we decided to go see about getting new phones. We use Verizon, and have the "new every 2" option. We were past due, but just hadn't found the right time to pick out new phones. We've also been thinking of dropping one of our air cards and getting a router to set up a wireless network. We found out that we've passed the date to inactivate one of the cards without paying a fee, so we went ahead and upgraded that card, and have noted the date to inactivate the other one on Sept. 1. That will give us time to get the router and make sure it works out before we drop one card.

As far as new phones, Jim picked out his with no trouble. He got one similar to what he had, just a rugged model that is water resistant. I had to think about mine for awhile, trying to decide if I wanted to do something really crazy and get a Blackberry. I ended up doing just that. So, now I have a whole new challenge ahead - I got the Storm, which is a touch screen. It's definitely a learning curve for me, but hey, that's what keeps my brain active, so I think I'm up for it. However, I'm not too good at answering the phone yet, so if you call me, be prepared for it to ring a few times!

Jim has been pretty itchy to do some canning. Yesterday morning, he made a batch of habanero jelly. We had to sample it when I got home from the Weight Watchers meeting, it's got a definite bite to it, but it sure is good. This morning, he decided to make a "small" batch of salsa. In the old days when we had a house, making salsa was an annual Event. He made gallons of it every year, canned a bunch of it and we gave it to friends and family throughout the summer and fall. But, since we've been fulltiming, he had not made a batch to can, although he's made fresh salsa a few times.

Out came the jars, lids, rings, pots, pans and tools. Off he went to the store for oodles of tomatoes, peppers, and onions.

I stayed out of the way, but close by in case he needed any help. It looks to me like he's got everything under control:

Yes, this is a small batch:

Coming out of the hot water and waiting to hear the "pop" when the jar seals:

All ready!

OK, now where did we put those chips? Yummmmm.....